Fellowships

Adult Programs

The Multidisciplinary Critical Care Training Program (MCCTP) is one of the world's leading training programs, attracting candidates from around the globe and enabling graduates to attain leadership positions at well-respected institutions throughout the world. The MCCTP has trained over 690 critical care physician subspecialists since its inception in 1963. The clinical experiences for internal medicine, surgical, anesthesiology and emergency medicine/critical care trainees are conducted in several tertiary hospitals with multiple subspecialty critical care units. Dedicated faculty provide a comprehensive, state of the art approach to patient care in this complex environment. The breadth of clinical experiences in this multidisciplinary program provides unequaled learning opportunities for critical care fellows. The curriculum includes state-of-the-art teaching and learning strategies tailored to programmatic goals. These educational and clinical experiences are augmented by the potential for research (both laboratory and clinical) and advanced training in education or clinical-administration. Fellows are encouraged to pursue these advanced training opportunities.

The Department and University Health Center hospitals have throughout its existence maintained continuous accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for critical care fellowships in Critical Care Medicine-Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine-Emergency Medicine, Surgical Critical Care, and Anesthesiology Critical Care. It is also accredited by the United Council of Neurological Subspecialties (UCNS) in Neurocritical Care. In addition, the MCCTP also offers training in ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) as well as an International Multidisciplinary Program in Advanced Critical Care Training. The MCCTP can recruit up to 21 internal medicine including 3 emergency medicine trainees, 4 anesthesiology trainees, and 4 surgical trainees each year.

Pediatric Program

The Multidisciplinary Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) was established in 1969 and was one of the first pediatric ICUs (PICUs) in the US. The first fellow in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) at CHP completed training in 1973. Since then, over 120 fellows in PCCM have been trained here.

In 2009, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) of UPMC moved 2.5 miles from the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh to its current location in the neighborhood of Lawrenceville. Since the early 1980s, critical care at CHP has grown from a single 10 bed ICU to 79 critical care beds across three separate units: the Pediatric ICU (36 beds), Cardiac ICU (12 beds), and Neonatal ICU (31 beds). Dr. Ann Thompson directed the fellowship program for 21 years, from 1981 to 2002. Dr. Robert Clark directed the program from 2002 to 2009. Dr. Scott Watson was program director from October 2009 to August 2014. Since 2014, Dr. Melinda Hamilton has been the Program Director, with Dr. Dennis Simon serving as Associate Program Director.

The PCCM Fellowship Program is accredited by the ACGME and contains two fellowship training program tracks: 1) a three-year program in PCCM, with 14 fellows and 2) a one- to two-year program in pediatric cardiac critical care, with up to two fellows. In both, the fellowship is to provide fellows with the knowledge, clinical experience and training to acquire the competency of a pediatric intensivist and to pursue an academic career. Opportunities for research and other scholarly work are diverse and extensive, as the majority of faculty in the division of PCCM have active research programs currently funded by the NIH. Fellows usually have 17 months dedicated to research and other scholarly activities.

Board Eligibility

After completion of:

Entering PGY Level

Required No. of Years of CC Training

Internal Medicine Residency*

4

2

Internal Medicine Residency + Subspecialty Fellowship

6

1

Surgery Residency

>6

1

3 years of Surgery Residency

4

1

Anesthesiology Residency

5

1

Emergency Medicine Residency

4 or 5

2

Pediatric Residency

4

3

* IM Candidates who plan to pursue a subspecialty fellowship AFTER Critical Care training can be considered Board Eligible for Critical Care after they are Board Certified in the additional subspecialty.